New Edition of A Young People’s History of the United States

The 2023 revised and updated edition of Howard Zinn’s A Young People’s History of the United States contains contributions by Latinx scholar Ed Morales and adapter Rebecca Stefoff, based on recent scholarship.  A new chapter, introduction, conclusion, and further updates throughout the book expand our understanding of Latinx history in the United States through the political movements and cultural contributions of Latino Americans, as well as expanded coverage of Native history and Asian American activism.

Zinn’s work exemplifies an approach to history that is radical, regardless of its subject or geographical location. He tells us the untold story, the story of the world’s poor, the world’s workers, the world’s homeless, the world’s oppressed, the people who don’t really qualify as real people in official histories. Howard Zinn painstakingly unearths the details that the powerful seek to airbrush away. He brings official secrets and forgotten histories out into the light, and in doing so, changes the official narrative that the powerful have constructed for us. He strips the grinning mask off the myth of the benign American Empire. To not read Howard Zinn is to do a disservice to yourself. — Arundhati Roy